The Book of Aquaman

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Just an idea, I have heard the idea of more testing tossed around, so maybe when results are varied like these it is the time to throw it out for more tests.

[IAmBatman]

Well combined the tests are narrowed to within a 20 point range (220-240 points) with one test still coming. So I'd say let's see what fruit that one bears before asking for anything extra.

[A3n]

I think we see what LP's test produce. I kind of have the feeling that Karat just didn't use him too wisely in the Army Tests. But hey I'm not a playtester.

Cheers

[A3n]

Final playtest is in from Lord Pyre:

Originally Posted by Lord Pyre

I'm done with the fish guy!

C3G PLAY TEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT Aquaman

- THEME TEST/ Check to see if there are any powers or stats on the test unit card that does not accurately reflect the theme or likeness of what the character would and could do. Also consider destructible objects, and whether or not this characters powers should affect them.
Pass He’s awesome and watery. Very similar to Namor, but he helps allies in a different way, and fights slightly differently in the water. I was kind of hoping for some sort of ability that let him spy on the other team through fish in water spaces, but I can see why that didn’t happen, haha!

- MIRROR TEST/ Check to see if the unit were played against itself, if there would be any loops that would upset the balance of the Game.
Pass

- BONDING TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing Bonding abilities to make sure there are no continual Bonding possibilities that do not stop appropriately or do not stop at all. This is to prevent loops in Bonding.
Pass

- SYNERGIES TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing synergies to make sure there are no factors that could break the game by making any unit to powerful or too weak.
Pass

- POWER CHECK/ Consider the test unit and all existing units and all glyphs to compare to and check for any powers that could be over amplified and break the game. Each power must define when it takes place, who or what it affects, and What are the stipulations on the power if there are any.
Pass This guy is beefy, but not too beefy. I love it!

- FUN TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play.
PassWith flying colors! One of my favorite designs to date!

- FUN COMPETITIVE TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play against.
Pass

- DRAFTING TEST/ Consider whether or not this design is worth drafting.
Pass A moderately priced heavy hitter + healer? Yes please!

- USAGE TEST/ Consider whether or not all of the powers on this card were used or at least usable.
Pass

- STRATEGY TEST/ Consider whether or not the design offers any real strategy or interesting tactics to the overall game.
Pass I love how you can choose to give up height advantage to get the water bonus and boost to your heal roll. Usually it’s worth it, but it depends on the match up! Against the Shield Agents, I opted to not go for the water, so they couldn’t set up their kill box. Also treating him as a brawler or a healer is a tough choice, since he’s pretty good at both. It depends on the map, and the rest of the army. I think he’d be GREAT with John and Guy Green Lanterns!

- Heavy Hitter or Mid-Level Hero/ Does it pass, Yes or No? What should be the unit's point value? Give a brief summary. Pass, at 220
Very balanced! He has the choice to grab water, or go just plain hand-to-hand. Batman totally beat him, though, which is perfect, haha! And then I just had to pit the two kings of Atlantis against each other!

Spoiler Alert!

TEST 1
Map: Fossil
Units: Batman
Batman wins R1T2, with 0 wounds
First turn, Aquaman rolls 6 skulls. Batman evades, and beats on him for two turns.

TEST 2
Map: Fossil
Units: Swamp Thing
Aquaman wins R2T1, with 2 wounds
Looked bad at first, when ST got height AND the swamp bonus, but Aquaman blocked the hits and got him with a good hit to bring him down.

TEST 3
Map: Fossil
Units: Green Goblin
Goblin wins R1T3, with 4 wounds
I was surprised this was so close. Goblin just flew back and forth between the two high spots, shooting off two attacks every turn. Aquaman kept hitting him with his range, but it wasn’t enough.

TEST 4
Map: Fossil
Units: Hawkgirl
Hawkgirl wins R2T2, with 3 wounds
Hawkgirl tried to fly away to set up a good swoop, but Aquaman just kept catching up to her with the Water Leap. So she just decided to stop being sneaky and punch his face in.

TEST 5
Map: Fossil
Units: Sub-Mariner
Aquaman wins R1T2, with 3 wounds
“Take that you Marvel poser!!! …Even though you came first. And am more awesome. *sob*
…But at least I beat you this game BAHAHAHAHA!!!”
~~Aquaman’s diary, Jan 25th, 2011

_____________________________________________________________

- Squad / Does it pass, Yes or No? What should be the unit's point value? Give a brief summary. Pass, at 220
They really had no chance. Aquaman’s stats are really good, and even if he was in trouble, he could risk jumping in the water and allowing them to gain height, to get the stat and healing boost.
Map: Fossil
Units: Shield Agents

Spoiler Alert!

Aquaman wins R3T1, with 1 wound
Aquaman healed two wounds throughout that battle.

_____________________________________________________________

- Army Test/ Does it pass, Yes or No? What should be the unit's point value? Give a brief summary. Pass, at 220
I really wanted him to do well with Guy. Guy moves up, shoots twice, then Aquaman jumps into water next to him (Works well on this map, aside from the tree right in from on the water space by the height Guy was on, not letting Aquaman use his range for the most part) and heals him. Rinse, and repeat. Except that Aquaman can still get shot.
He’s a tricky figure to use. In water, he’s deadly, and sometimes more useful than Namor, with his range. But with only 5 defense and 5 life otherwise, he’s not THAT invulnerable. He has staying power, but don’t get too confident. I wanted to heal Guy, but it defeats the purpose if Aquaman is trying to keep HIMSELF alive. He’s a big target with that healing, which doesn’t exactly help his survivability.
Map: Fossil
Units: Aquaman, Guy Gardner, Elektra, Daredevil (890) VS. Black Canary, Echo, Batman (Terry) Robin, Green Arrow (Oliver) Green Arrow (Connor) (870)

Spoiler Alert!

R1: Elektra moves up by the hive. BC and Robin move to the center path. Daredevil throws his baton at BC, but misses. Echo takes Robin’s range, and shoots Daredevil for 3 wounds. Aquaman moves up and heals DD. Oliver shoots DD, giving him that wound right back.
R2: Guy takes a wound to attack BC twice, but still only gives her 1 wound. BD cries at DD and Aquaman, DD dodges, but Aquaman gets 2 wounds. Aquaman jumps in water, and gives BC a wound with his water boost. BC misses Aquaman, but Oliver puts 2 more wounds on him. Robin misses Aquaman. Elektra kills BC. Echo kills Aquaman from height, and Robin misses DD.
R3: Elektra puts 2 wounds on Oliver. Bats flies forward, and Robin kills DD. Guy rolls 7 skulls to kill Robin in one hit! Bats flies to Elektra, misses, then flies back up by Echo. Elektra throws a shurikan at Connor, dealing a wound, but hitting some sort of major artery and giving her the assassination.
R4: Oliver shoots at Guy, forcing Guy to burn a marker. Elektra misses Echo. Bats uses his comlink to shoot at Elektra from height by Echo. Guy puts a wound on Bats, then takes a wound to kill him. Echo shoots Elektra for a wound, and Guy puts a wound on Oliver.
R5: Oliver kills Guy with a lucky 20 on his skill shot and a 4 skull attack, not letting him use a shield! Elektra then kills Oliver for revenge, and puts a wound on Echo. Echo decides to do this hand-to-hand, and gives up her range for Elektra’s extra attack, but misses. Guy loses his turn, then Echo rolls 3 skulls, and Elektra whiffs her defense, resulting in her death.

Echo had 2 life left, I think.

_____________________________________________________________

- Army Test/ Does it pass, Yes or No? What should be the unit's point value? Give a brief summary. Pass, at 220
He did better this game, I think tactics with him still need to be figured out, but I’m really liking him. He died basically because I decided to sacrifice him to save Guy. Guy, being like a hundred points more, I think was worth it. He’s a real interesting figure, wanting to be on the front lines with his stats, but also wanting to hold back to be the healer.
Map: Fossil
Units: Aquaman, Namor, Guy Gardner, Shield Agents x2 (1010) VS. Deadpool, Green Goblin, Poison Ivy, Creeper, Harley Quinn, Bob, Shield Sniper

Spoiler Alert!

R1: Guy flies to the height on the side closest to the opponent’s army, and attacks Green Goblin, then takes a wound to be able to kill him. Deadpool moves up, shooting at Guy, dealing a wound. Harley moves up a bit. Aquaman leaps over to Guy (In the same position they were last game, I wanted to try it out again), and heals Guy. Goblin loses his turn. The Agents move up, one of them manages to get Harley in range, and puts 2 wounds on her. Ivy moves next to Aquaman, with height on him since he’s in the water, and then rolls for her plants, targeting Guy, Aquaman, and 3 agents, but misses all of them! Harley moves next to Ivy, who blocks her from attacking anyone since she can’t move through Ivy while she’s engaged.
R2: Aquaman puts 5 wounds on Ivy, and heals Guy again. Ivy tries her plants once more, but not after making some room for Harley to hit Aquaman. Ivy’s plants wound Guy, Aquaman, and kill of an agent. Harley misses Aquaman on her attack. The agents then set up a kill box and obliterate Ivy. Ivy loses her turn, and Guy puts a wound on DP. DP moves up to the same level as Guy, and fires away, putting 1 wound on him, and burning one of his markers. DP heals his wound. Harley isn’t within clear sight of DP when he’s behind the big tree by Guy.
R3: DP misses Guy. Harley puts 1 wound on Aquaman. Aquaman leaps between DP and Guy, since Guy is taking a beating. He manages to put 2 wounds on DP, and also heal Guy. DP kills Aquaman pretty quick, though, and heals. Guy puts a wound on DP, and takes a wound to deal another wound. Creeper moves up taking an insanity marker, and Harley kills an agent. DP heals again with the “X” marker.
R4: DP attacks Guy, who burns a marker. DP heals again. Guy does 2 wounds to DP, and then takes a wound to finally finish him off. DP loses his turn. Namor joins the battle, flying up to attack Harley, but she dodges. Creeper climbs up to attack Guy, and Guy burns a marker to block it. Harley throws her bomb at Namor and an agent, but it turns out to be a complete dud, rolling 5 shields and a blank! She even fails the roll to remove the only unrevealed order marker from Namor. Even though it was a dud, this pisses Namor off, and he kills Harley.
R5: Namor flies over to the other high area, and puts 4 wounds on Creeper. Creeper takes another insanity marker, then misses Namor, but heals. Namor misses Creeper, Creeper misses Namor and heals. Namor puts a wound on Creeper, then the Sniper shoots at Namor, but fails.
R6: This goes on for a while, nobody really moving, just a fistfight. Creeper takes his 3rd insanity marker, and puts 2 wounds on Namor, and heals. Namor misses Creeper.
R7: Creeper puts a wound on Namor and heals. Namor puts 2 wounds on Creeper. And then, just as things were finally looking good for team insano, Creeper goes totally psycho and joins the other side! Namor, still unsatisfied that he couldn’t kill something, takes out his frustration by flying down to Bob and killing him in 1 hit. The Sniper puts a wound on Namor. Guy (I put an order marker on his, because Namor was taking some good hits from Creeper) flies down to the sniper, but misses.
R8: Namor jumps in the water, hoping for an attack boost later on if he doesn’t kill the sniper now, and totally doesn’t kill the sniper now. The sniper rolls two skulls against Namor, who barely blocks it with 4 shields! Guy attacks the sniper and misses. The sniper kills Namor, and Guy finishes the sniper.

Guy has 3 wounds, and only 1 marker left. Creeper has two wounds. Two agents were dead.

I REALLY like Aquaman! He’s one of my favorites so far! I hope his release isn’t planned to be TOO far off!
He’ll take a bit of figuring out before he can play to his fullest, but I think he has a ton of potential that I haven’t found quite yet. I like him a LOT better than Namor, and Namor’s a pretty cool guy. Aquaman ALWAYS has the stat boosts in the water, while Namor has to start his turn to get the attack boost. The leap is really handy, and sometimes makes Aquaman faster than Namor. The healing is also much more useful then Namor’s Avenger power, which I STILL haven’t been able to make work! Aquaman doesn’t have water Thorian Speed, and his stats aren’t as good, so he’s good the 30 points less. He obviously won’t be nearly as good without water, but the healing, and his decent stats make it so he’s not useless!

He was so incredibly fun, I can’t wait for him to be released! J The ONLY problem I really see is that I painted and rebased my figure before the test, and I sliced my finger right open when my knife slipped. Now whenever I think “Aquaman,” I’m also thinking “KNIVESKNIVESKNIVES.”

*Shudder*

Pass, at 220 points!

[IAmBatman]

Hmm ... well that puts Lord Pyre at 220 ... my tests at 220-230 (so 225) and the other test at 230-240 (so 235). Average those together and you get about 226 ... I think 225 might be the best option here.

[Griffin]

At 226, I would rather round up to 230, especially for a healer.

[IAmBatman]

I could see that ... but his healing is easy to fail at times and he rarely uses it on others, since he's usually too busy trying to save his own life!
I'd be OK with 230, though. It's in my acceptable range here.

[Griffin]

Cool, then I will echo 230.

[A3n]

I propose we move Aquaman to final editing at 230 points

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Yea.

[Griffin]

Yesh

[SirGalahad]

yea